The Dutch Make Plans for $400 Billion Man-Made Mountain

Sorry Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. While your quest to keep announcing a new world’s tallest building every five or so years, skyscrapers just aren’t as exciting as they used to be. Instead, this season, constructing a multi-billion dollar mountain where nature didn’t intend one to be is the new modern architectural marvel.

Following the on-again, off-again flirtation in Berlin with building a 1,000 meter peak where Tempelhof airport once stood (it’s since been trimmed down a bit to 60 meters), Building Designerreports that the Netherlands are now looking into constructing a man-made mountain of their own. Complaining about a lack of sufficient heights for cyclists, skiers, and mountain climbers to train on, a number of organizations have signed on to look into building a peak somewhere in the Dutch highlands.

The cost is expected to be somewhere above $400 billion and “take up to 30 years to construct.” We’re not entirely sure that this isn’t just a big hoax (we’ve been had before, remember?), but in the interim, here’s a bit more from BD:

Investors are now being sought for the mountain, which would generate revenue from activities including sports, energy, drinking water and food production.

[Jounalist Thijs Zonneveld] said: “This plan is serious. All kinds of big companies have now stepped in, various municipalities and investors are interested. Sport is perhaps the main reason why there is so much attention for this mountain. Because sport captures the imagination.”